Three Takeaways From ASU’s Pac-12 Tournament Loss Vs. Utah

(Photo: Spencer Barnes/WCSN)

The 2023-24 Arizona State men’s basketball season will be one that most fans will want to forget. The worst winning percentage in the eight seasons under head coach Bobby Hurley. One of the team’s most prolific scorers, graduate forward Jose Perez, quitting on the team with two games left to play, appearing a few days later in the Dominican Republic. The list goes on.

In their final game as a member of the Pac-12, the Sun Devils (14-18, 8-12 Pac-12) made just a brief cameo, ending Hurley’s worst season with a 90-57 loss to the Utah Utes (18-13, 9-11 Pac-12). Here are three takeaways from the defeat.

First Half Apathy:

Despite the ugly season for ASU, two of the Sun Devils’ strongest wins came against Utah. However, after 20 minutes it was clear that we would not be seeing a repeat of those prior performances.

With 2:28 left in the half, Hurley called a timeout to try and stop the bleeding once again. Junior guard Frankie Collins took over from Hurley, attempting to instill some sort of effort and emotion into his teammates. Contrasting their two previous performances against the Utes, the Sun Devils struggled to get anything going offensively and allowed Utah to score 47 first-half points, hitting 70% of their shots on the way to a 47-22 landslide.

Collins was the one trying to invigorate his teammates in the huddle, and it looked like he was the only one delivering a high effort performance on the court. The California native scored 10 of the team’s 12 points and hit the team’s only three-pointer of the half. With the season now at its end, Hurley’s No. 1 priority headed into the offseason is convincing the ASU single-season steals record holder to remain in the Maroon and Gold. — Sammy Nute

Dichotomy from behind the Arc:

The matchup against Utah did not look good on paper for Arizona State. The Utes shot 35.8% from three during the regular season whereas the Sun Devils entered the tournament shooting 30.4% from behind the arc. That stark difference in three-point shooting reared its ugly for ASU in the first half of the game.

Even though ASU was not expected to outshoot Utah, its best chance of winning was to at least keep it close. That is almost impossible when the team only makes one three-pointer in the first 20 minutes, but that is what the Sun Devils did in the first half. ASU was 1-for-8 from three-point land because junior guard Frankie Collins made that lone triple, which was the only bright spot for the team as he had 10 of its 22 first-half points.

Shooting struggles is not a surprise for ASU, but what was shocking was the team’s poor defensive effort, which was evident by Utah shooting 7-for-15 from three in the first half. The Utes have a prolific three-point shooting backcourt with senior Gabe Madsen and graduate Cole Bajema as both shot above about 39% from behind the arc while each started all 31 games, but it was the latter who exploded in Las Vegas. Bajema shot 4-for-6 from three in the first half, which covered up Madsen missing both his three-point attempts in those 20 minutes.

The dichotomy from behind the arc in the first half was so staggering that it resulted in a 25-point deficit for the Sun Devils at halftime, which was the final blow to knock them out of the tournament and conclude a disappointing end to the season. — Justin de Haas

Outschemed and Outplayed

The Sun Devils looked lost on both ends of the floor Wednesday night, going down double digits in the first eight minutes of play and failing to put up a fight all game long. Offensively, they looked like a team without a road map, and on the defensive end they constantly scrambled to slow down a more cohesive Utah offensive.

ASU’s offensive struggles looked likely coming into Wednesday with graduate wing Jose Perez missing from the team. Perez held the second-highest points per game on the team and he became a go-to option when the offense became stagnant.

The Sun Devils failed to generate consistent scoring looks inside, shooting just 5-for-17 on layups as the Utes successfully contested shots at the basket. This was combined with a woeful performance from beyond the arch, and they scored on just 39% of possession.

On the defensive end, ASU was just as lost on offense. In the first half, Utah shot 71% from the field, and 7-of-15 from three. Utah feasted inside during the first half, shooting 11-for-14 on layups and scoring 18 points in the paint.

Once the game clocked ticked down to halftime the game was already seemingly over, and the second half was more of the same as both teams had minimal adjustments seeing the game out, with the rout continuing from the jump. — Ryan Myers